Accuracy and ball security issues plague Jack Tuttle in loss to Illinois

With a minute left on the clock, graduate quarterback Jack Tuttle drove the No. 24 Michigan football team 55 yards down the field, completing five quick passes in a row. It was his best sequence of plays against No. 22 Illinois on Saturday, but after that fifth pass, Tuttle walked off the field well short of the end zone.

He weaved his way through the mob of Fighting Illini players and fans rushing the field in celebration — because his garbage-time completions were nothing more than stat padders, a consolation prize as Illinois let the Wolverines run out the clock on its victory

In his first start for Michigan, Tuttle didn’t play the game he would have liked. Throwing for 208 yards with a 63% completion percentage, Tuttle moved the ball decently well at times even with that last drive inflating his numbers. But his two turnovers and failure to pilot his offense to more than seven points fill in the rest of the picture — the truer picture.

“Jack can’t turn the ball over,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “We got to get the guys that when they’re open, we got to complete those passes. Just got to be better.”

From the jump, Tuttle struggled to hit his targets. On his first play of the game, he launched a deep shot 35 yards down the field for junior receiver Amorion Walker. Walker didn’t have particularly impressive separation, but Tuttle placed the ball out of his reach anyway. 

After senior running back Donovan Edwards picked up a measly 2 yards on the ground, Tuttle took to the air again on third-and-8. He identified wide-open junior tight end Colston Loveland streaking across the middle, but he proceeded to throw the ball well behind Loveland. Loveland wasn’t close to the line to gain, so he may not have gotten the first down. But Tuttle didn’t give him, or Walker on the earlier play, a chance.

“What was most frustrating to me is we had an opportunity at the beginning, an easy throw,” Tuttle said of his miss to Loveland. “I lay it out there too much for (Loveland). And that can’t happen. Obviously that changes the game. That’s one that gets you in your sleep at night. That can’t happen.”

Those early incompletions may have changed the game, but Tuttle’s turnovers decided it. 

On the second play of the second quarter, Tuttle fumbled, allowing the Illini to punch the ball out of his arms as he scrambled. On the next drive, Tuttle’s first pass zipped so directly to Illinois defensive back Scott Miles that it looked as if Tuttle was aiming for Miles the whole time. 

Luckily for Tuttle, his brutal mistake was negated by a defensive holding penalty — although running back Donovan Edwards fumbled the ball right back to the Illini two plays later.

Tuttle and the offense rebounded with their best drive of the night, however. Feeding off of graduate running back Kalel Mullings’ early yards on the ground, Tuttle started to connect with Loveland through the air. Mullings scored Michigan’s only points on that drive.

After Illinois blocked the Wolverines’ field goal attempt on their next drive, Michigan made it all the way back to the red zone again. Tuttle had even found Loveland to convert on fourth-and-18 to get there. The Wolverines had one last opportunity to make a move — and then Tuttle threw the ball right back to the Illini.

“The drive where we threw the pick at the end, I thought we were moving it pretty well,” Moore said. “We just forced it because you go down there, and we really ran the ball well, but when you went down two scores, then you had to throw it and put yourself in the throwing position.”

Tuttle wasn’t enough to power Michigan’s offense when he was forced to throw, though. His first throws of the game hitting the turf instead of his targets foreshadowed the stagnant offensive showing to come.

Finally, one of his best shots at the end zone falling straight into Illinois hands signaled Michigan’s hopes of a comeback were officially no more. So by the time Tuttle was firing off chunk yardage in garbage time, the Wolverines’ game was long over — and nothing but Tuttle’s stats were affected.

The post Accuracy and ball security issues plague Jack Tuttle in loss to Illinois appeared first on The Michigan Daily.


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